Theories Of International Relations 2 Dersi 4. Ünite Özet

Introduction

Karl Marx - a German philospher, economist and political theorist- developed a theory called Marxism in the middle of the 19th century with some involvement of Friedrich Engels - a German social scientist and businessman. The focus of this theory is an explanation of social change in terms of economic factors and class struggle in Western societies. According to Marxism, the means of production provide the economic base which influences or determines the political and ideological superstructure. Marx and Engels predicted the revolutionary overthrow of capitalism by workers and the eventual achievement of a classless society.

The theory split the world in the early 20th century with the Russian Revolution in 1917 and led to the Cold War after the Second World War, lasting for almost half a century. Even though the Cold War ended and the Soviet Union disintegrated in the early 1990s, Marxism continued to be a much discussed theory.

Classic Marxist Theory

Classic Marxist theory is essentially based on the evolution of capitalism and class conflict in the Western world. It is argued that the capitalism of 19th century in Europe emerged out of the earlier feudal system. In the capitalist system, private interests control labor and market exchanges. There is a conflict between the controlling capitalist class and the controlled working class out of which a new socialist order is born in the end.

The three sub-theories of Marxism are as follows:

1. the theory of alienation
2. the labor theory of value
3. the materialist conception of history

Marxism has its main intellectual origins in German philosophy, English political economy, and French utopianism.The German philosopher Georg W. F. Hegel had a significant effect on Marx which was a new way of thinking about the world, called “dialectics”,a term used to describe a method of philosophical argument that involves some sort of contradictory process between opposing sides Marx was also influenced by British political economists and French utopians.

Different from Hegel’s dialectic, Marx’s dialectic is actually materialist. While Hegel examines ideas apart from the people they belong to, Marx’s materialism puts ideas back into the heads of living people, focusing on human activities, especially on production.

Marx believes that whoever controls the economic system also controls the political system. For Marx, all history, is the history of class struggle between a ruling group and an opposing one from which a new economic, political, and social system emerges.

The critical question in the Marxist theory is how the ways in which people earn their living affect their bodies, minds, and daily lives.

In the theory of alienation, Marx argues that workers in the capitalist society do not own the means of production (eg. machines). The core of this theory consists of four relations:

1. The worker is alienated from his or her productive activity without having a say.
2. The worker is alienated from the product of that activity, having no control over it.
3. The worker is alienated from other human beings with competition and mutual indifference.
4. The worker is alienated from the distinctive potential for creativity and community.

As a result, workers gradually lose their ability to develop finer qualities as members of human species.

The labor theory of value emphasizes the fact that the workers being unable to produce have to sell their labor force to survive. The result is that they give up all rights on the products of their labor and have to pay to use a small part of the products they have produced.

Marx calls the rest of the product surplus value which is the difference between the amount of exchange and value created by workers.According to Marx, this is the greatest weakness of the capitalist system because the workers get only part of their product back as wages. Under pressure from the continuous growth of the total product, the capitalists periodically fail to find new markets to take up the slow times of business. This eventually leads to a crisis of overproduction and by extension, an economic crisis.

The capitalists and workers are in a constant battle of interests. Workers have interests in higher wages and better working conditions. In order to realize them, they need a new distribution of power. Both sides are supported by some groups or institutions:

Capitalists: money, control of the state, their domination over other institutions

Workers: their high number, trade unions, working class political parties, the contradictions within capitalism that make current conditions increasingly irrational.

Marx predicts that capitalism will be beaten by a revolution which will be followed by the emerge of a socialist society. It will develop the productive potential further than the capitalist system. , Marxist view of socialism was a source of inspiration for many radical scholars who tried to develop alternative models to the capitalist system.

Critics of Classic Marxism

Classic Marxism has been critized in many ways

1. It is argued that the class structure today is more complex than the capitalists-workers or bourgeois-proletariat distinction.
2. The capitalist structure today can be considered to be less exploitative. There are two reasons for this: • Workers get better wages so that a demand can also be generated for “surplus production”. • The state has a more central role in regulating capitalism.
3. Marx argued that whoever controlled the means of production also controlled the economic infrastructure. However, it can be said that today many institutions have at least relative autonomy from bourgeois control.
4. The correctness of the Marxist hypothesis of the superstructure determined by the economic infrastructure, controlled by the capitalists, to create false consciousness is questionable. Most postmodernists argue that popular culture exists independently of capitalist control with free individuals who do not necessarily feel exploited For those people classes are generally irrelevant to their lives.
5. In modern companies, there is less alienation . Workers have a lot more to say through worker unions and they are offered more opportunities to express themselves.
6. Classic Marxist theory is too deterministic. Marx argued that economic laws shape the society and the direction of history itself. However, many different factors affect human history.
7. The socialist revolutions in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe did not lead to greater equality and freedom as it could have been expected according to Marxist theory.
8. It is argued that Marx’s theory is no longer relevant to today’s more complex world affairs.

Imperialism and its Critics

For Marx the modern structure of capitalism was the final phase of capitalist order. This was the starting point of the theory of imperialism taken by many Marxists, particularly John A. Hobson- an English economist influenced by liberal thinkers- and Vladimir I. Lenin.

Hobson attempts to explain the rise of new imperialism in the 1870s and 1880s when Great Britain, together with the other European powers, engaged in a struggle for colonies.

Hobson argues that imperialism results from advanced capitalism, producing an excess of capital unable to find any profitable outlet in the domestic economy and therefore searching for new markets abroad.

Hobson’s theory of imperialism has also been criticized in many ways:

• The arguments of Hobson are rather superficial. The real driving force of the British expansion in the 19th century came from explorers, missionaries, and politicians, with little interest in financial investments.
• His argument that economics supported imperialism, was also attacked because basically they were strategic considerations and geopolitics that led to European expansion throughout the 19th century.

Following Marxist thought and inspired by the work of Hobson, Lenin (1870-1924) also developed a theory of imperialism.

According to Lenin’s theory poor economies are exploited by rich economies. At the beginning of the 20th century, Lenin outlined five basic features of imperialism the core of which is monopoly:

1. the transition from free competition to monopoly production
2. the formation of trusts, cartels and banks
3. the increasing importance of export of capital as opposed to export of commodities
4. the start of division of the world among international monopolist businesses
5. completion of the division of the world among great powers

The result is that the richer and more powerful nations exploit the weaker ones. The development of capitalism leads to a greater need for raw materials and markets and with this to a greater struggle for colonies. Political control over other countries provides capitalists with raw materials and cheap labor. Unfortunately, this delays the revolution because workers know that they can easily be substituted.To end international conflicts, it is necessary to eliminate capitalist states.

Historical events and critics show that he theory of imperialism has a methodological weakness. The theory is simply based on subjective interpretation of historical events; and therefore, not really suitable for empirical testing.

Neo-Marxism

Neo-Marxism is a theory working within the Marxist intellectual tradition, but looking for ways to broaden or revise Marxist thought to address topics not specifically addressed by Marx like an analysis of the state, economy, or politics that move beyond the simple infrastructure/superstructure interaction. Neo-Marxists may combine classical Marxist analysis with forms of sociology, social-psychology, or even feminism. Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937) developed the concept of “cultural hegemony” through which capitalism perpetuates itself. Cultural hegemony is the dominant ideology of the society that reflects the beliefs and interests of the ruling class.

Johan Galtung also claims that the trade relationships between the former European Community (now European Union) and Third World countries is characterized by structural dominance. The reasons for this are as follows:

• Vertical division of labor: Less developed countries supply the basic raw materials for the advanced countries which leads to the growth of one pole of the world economy and to the impoverishment of the other.
• Absence of horizontal economic relations among developing countries: The European Community provides many economic privileges to many developing countries in accordance with its interests. In contrast, the rest of the Third World is left alone.
• Penetrating: Galtung brings the alliance between the elites in poor countries and the capitalists in rich countries into our attention. Neo-Marxists believe that a higher standard of living may only be achieved in an unequal way. Only a small part of the population could experience significantly higher benefits, but for the rest there would be considerably lower ones.

As to foreign investment, developing countries have had to accept foreign direct investment in vital sectors of their economies; however, developed countries have always been careful about foreign investment in their own countries. The expansion of foreign direct investment and predominance of investment through acquistion are likely to lead to tensions among states. Another point is that countries believe in a national security threat if they are highly dependent on foreign suppliers for crucial goods, services and technologies.

Some Neo-Marxists emphasize the connection between imperialism and the United States policy. The United States began later than the European Powers to build an empire and changing from an isolated country in one playing an important role in World politics. It is a wellknown fact that today the United States is a leading hegenomic power. However, the US is accused of contemporary imperialism by some scholars.

Critics of Neo-Marxism

Like classic Marxism, neo-Marxism has also been critized by many scholars.Western countries are said to be responsible for the underdevelopment of less developed countries, but this may not be true. Countries which were not colonized seem to fall behind. On the contrary, colonized countries got the chance to experience literacy, education, science, even hygiene and sanitary methods. Besides, there may be other reasons like internal conflicts, lack of culture of democracy or frustration of basic human needs for a county to be underdeveloped.

Another interesting point is that the West had a more political impact on colonial land than an economic one. Ideas like freedom, liberty, independence, and selfdetermination are actually borrowed from Western political vocabulary.

Neo-Marxists, like classic Marxists, hold the opinion that the socialist system cannot be exploitative, but it should not be ignored that the Soviet Union’s approach to the countries under its control was rather exploitative.

The North-South Division

The North-South division is an extension of the Marxist thought It refers to the structural inequalities in the international economy. The North is roughly composed of developed northern hemisphere countries, while the South consists of underdeveloped or developing Third World countries without taking the geographic position of some countries into consideration.

During the Cold War,the countries were divided into First World/Western Bloc (the US and their allies), Second World/Eastern Bloc (Soviet Union and its allies) and Third World (countries poorer than the First and Second World countries). After the Cold War, a new criteria was used: the North (developed countries) and the South (underdeveloped countries). The North controls almost 80 per cent of the world’s total income. All G8 countries and four of the United Nations Security Council permanent members are from the North.

Some features of the South are:

• Low level of Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
• High population
• Large parts of the population without access to basic needs.
• Dependent on the imports from the North
• Low technological penetration

There are different views on the North-South division. Liberalists think that free international trade and capital flows could eventually lead to a contraction in the NorthSouth division, while Neo-Marxist believe that free trade and flow of capital will widen the gap between developed and underdeveloped countries much further.

In 1974, the countries of the South called for a New International Economic Order (NIEO) to restructure the global economy. Some of their main demands were:

• linking prices of commodity exports to manufactured imports
• transferring technology from the North to the South
• cancelling or rescheduling foreign debts
• standardizing prices for raw materials
• ending starvation and food crises
• opening the North’s market for manufactured or semi-processed goods of the South

The measures taken by the United Nations in 2000 to reduce the division between the North and South through the adaptation of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are:

• eradicating extreme poverty and hunger
• achieving universal primary education
• promoting gender equality and empowering women
• reducing child mortality
• improving maternal health
• combatting fatal diseases
• ensuring environmental sustainability
• developing a global partnership for development

MDGs were originally planned to be achieved by the year 2015, but little progress has been made so far, so the North South division continues to have a problematic position in the World.